The 2000 election put all of us on warning: Flaws in our elections open the door to partisan manipulation of election results, disenfranchisement of large portions of the population, and uncertain results—all of which undermine faith in our democracy.

Last year, the U.S. Senate Rules Committee held a hearing on the Iowa PIRG-backed Ballot Integrity Act of 2007. The bill contains several key provisions that protect voters and their votes, clarify the rules, and establish even-handed procedures to ensure elections are administered fairly.

Among the items that the Ballot Integrity Act would provide: equitable distribution of voting machines, standards for using and counting provisional ballots, standards for purging voters from the rolls, and funding for Election Day poll workers.

After several airlines stranded passengers on runways without food, water or access to bathrooms for hours on end in the past year, the affected passengers didn’t just get mad—they organized. The Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights now includes 17,000 members of the flying public.

Iowa PIRG has joined the coalition and thanked Rep. Bruce Braley and for co-sponsoring Iowa PIRG-backed legislation to establish an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights. So far, bills have been introduced into Congress, but the airline industry is pushing to make sure they don’t come up for a vote. The law would, in addition to other reforms, require airlines to notify passengers within 10 minutes of any known diversion, delay or cancellation.

Massachusetts and Oregon were the two most recent additions to the list of 40 states that enjoy stronger protections against identity theft, thanks to laws based on model legislation crafted by PIRG consumer advocates and our allies at Consumers Union. Iowa has not passed the model legislation yet.

However, with so many states passing strong consumer-friendly laws, lobbyists for the financial industry are looking to Congress to help them evade the new restrictions on data-dealing. With Ed Mierzwinksi, our top consumer advocate, leading the way, we’ve stopped the rollback so far, but data dealers show no sign of letting up.

Meanwhile, security breaches at Citigroup, Monster.com and smaller retailers upped the total number of stolen or otherwise inadvertently disclosed records since 2005 to more than 165 billion—and the number is growing every month.